The following e-mail is a question that we get so often that we would
like to devote a special article to it. This person stated it so
well that perhaps it will help others who read this to grasp what the
issue is. The answer to questions of apparent contradictions in
Genesis is vital to our understanding of what the Bible actually
says. Here is the e-mail.

I am a Christian who wants to believe
that the Bible is infallible, but I am troubled by several events in
the order of creation recorded in the first chapter of Genesis.

1. On the first day, God created light
and darkness, but it was not until the fourth
day that He created the
sun and other stars. How can there be light without the sun and
other stars?

2. On the third day, God created
vegetation (i.e., plants and trees), but it was not until the fourth
day that He created the sun and other stars. How can there be
vegetation without the sun and other stars?

3. Also, on the second or third day, God
apparently created the earth, but it was not until the fourth day that
He created the sun and other stars. How can this be, since there
seems to be considerable scientific evidence that the earth was created
much later than the sun and the other stars?

For believers and unbelievers alike, there is a need to understand
what the original text of Genesis actually says. There has been a
tendency to read casually without looking at the original language, and
when this is done the problems our e-mailer raises come up. This
question is probably given to us more frequently than any other single
question.

The problem here is that the Hebrew words in Genesis make a
distinction between the process of creating and the process of
making. The Hebrew word bara
meaning "to create" is different
than the Hebrew word asah
meaning "to make." The word bara is
never used in the Bible in reference to something a human can do. It is
only used in reference to something God can do. The Hebrew word
asah is used in reference to both things God does and things humans
do. Denominational creationists and atheists have tried to
maintain that these words mean the same thing, but that is simply not
the case. In Genesis 2:3 in summarizing the creation week the Bible
says "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that
in it he had rested from all his work which God created [bara] and made
[asah]." Clearly God says He did both.

The first time that bara is used in the Genesis account is in verse 1.
The next time it is used is in verse 21 in
reference to life. That means that everything between verse 1 and verse 21 is made, not
created. What was created in verse 1? The two
things described are the shamayim
translated heaven, and the erets
translated earth. For a casual reader this is very simple.
Shamayim refers to everything above us--the stars, galaxies, the sun,
moon, black holes, asteroids, comets, nebulae, etc. Erets refers
to everything here--the planet Earth. Notice the order--the cosmos
first and then the earth. This verse is undated and
untimed. We are not told how long God chose to use to do this
creating--just that He did it. In very simple terms, God created
everything--that which is above us and the planet Earth itself.

Someone might object, saying, "Now
wait a minute; the sun and moon
and stars are described in verses 14-19."
That is true, but the word used in those verses is asah, not
bara. These objects were created in verse 1, but
they were put into their proper functioning position in verses 14-19. Why was
that done? "... To divide the day from the night; and let them be
for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years" (verse 14). The objects
are created in verse 1,
but it is not until verses
14-19 that they could be used for the chronological purposes of
man--our time pieces and calendars. We can speculate about what
went on to do this. Scientists will tell us that it is very
probable that cloud cover placed the earth in a situation where one
could not see the sun or moon or stars. To establish signs,
seasons, days, or years one has to be able to see these objects.
The light that comes to the planet in verse 3 then
is not God providing some miraculous glow, but simply the light from
the sun and moon which can get to the earth; but the sources cannot be
seen clearly enough to establish our timing devices.

Those who do not want to take the
Bible this literally will complain
that bara is used in Genesis 1:27 in reference to man, but in Genesis 2:7
the word used to describe man is yatsar
which refers to molding or
shaping in the original language. Genesis 1:27 is referring
to that part of man which is in the image of God--man's soul. We
are spiritually in God's image, not physically in God's image.
The reference in Genesis 2:7
is talking about man's body. The word yatsar is used in reference
to something a potter does, and we are told man was formed of the dust
of the ground (something to which our bodies shall return). It is
sad that not taking the Bible literally in these verses has caused some
to maintain that man does not have a soul, when the first reference to
our unique makeup is here in Genesis.

The accuracy of the sequence of events in the Genesis account is
incredible. It fits every shred of scientific evidence that is
available. The word shamayim used in verse 1 means
"heaved up things" according to Young's
Analytical Concordance.
Many biblical verses tell us that God stretched out the heavens,
strongly suggesting both the expanding universe and the fact that the
universe is accelerating (see Psalm 104:2;
Isaiah 40:22;
44:24; 45:12; 51:13; Jeremiah 10:12;
51:15; etc.).
The creation process is undated and untimed, and the evidence
scientifically is that it took a long period of time. The light
from all of these objects reaches earth in verse 3 and
God begins His creative process of man and man's familiar animals in
the creation week starting in verse 3. Changes in
the earth's atmosphere are described in verses 6-7
allowing man's timepieces to become visible in verses 14-19.
The formation of continental masses as
we know them are given in verses 9-10
and the plants man knows are described in a sequence of "tender
grasses" (algae, lichen, etc.), followed by herbs (gymnosperms),
followed by flowering plants in verses 11-12
(angiosperms).

Animal life begins in verse 20, again given in
the correct sequence with water creatures followed by birds, then
mammals, and then man. The descriptions are general in these
verses. You will not find echidnas, platypuses, viruses, worms,
insects, dinosaurs, etc. in these verses. What you do see are the
animals Moses was familiar with given in the correct sequence.
Remember that Genesis is not written for biologists living in the
twenty-first century. It is written for people living over a time
stretch of thousands of years in a variety of cultures, languages, and
traditions. The fact remains they are given in the correct
sequence, and while there are many things we might like to know which
are not given, everything that is given is checkable and turns out to
be consistent with the best evidence we have available. The Bible
is God's word and, as Timothy says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and
is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in
righteousness, so that the man [or woman] of God may be thoroughly
equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy
3:16-17, NIV). Let us not allow careless claims and poor
understandings rob us of confidence in that statement.